President Bush Requests $1.255 Billion for EERE in FY 2009

President Bush's proposed budget for fiscal year 2008 is green in at least one sense: it was the first federal budget proposal to be transmitted to Congress electronically, saving 20 tons of paper. Enlarge this image.Credit: Joyce Boghosian, White House

President Bush unveiled his proposed federal budget for fiscal year
(FY) 2009 on February 4, including $25 billion for DOE. The budget
requests $1.255 billion for the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and
Renewable Energy (EERE), which is essentially equal to the President's
budget request for FY 2008 but about 18% lower than the actual FY 2008
funding (not counting congressionally directed funds). Compared to the
FY 2008 appropriations, the proposed budget boosts funding for
geothermal energy by 51% to provide for field demonstrations of
enhanced geothermal systems technologies. The budget also provides a
13.5% funding increase for research and development relating to
biomass and biorefinery systems, a similar funding increase for
efficient building technologies, and nearly level funding for the
Federal Energy Management Program, vehicle technologies, industrial
technologies, and wind energy. The budget proposal cuts hydrogen and
fuel cell technologies by 69%, deferring hydrogen production research
to focus instead on hydrogen storage and fuel cell technologies that
are needed to develop a practical fuel cell vehicle by 2015.

The budget increases funding for state energy programs by 13% and
proposes $7.5 million in new funding for the Asia Pacific Partnership
on Clean Development and Climate. It eliminates funding for
Weatherization Assistance Grants, arguing that the energy efficiency
retrofit program for low-income households has failed to catalyze
broader solutions for the tens of millions of eligible homes that have
never received retrofits. It also eliminates the Renewable Energy
Production Incentive, which has become less effective as renewable
energy technologies have become competitive and as limited funds have
been distributed to a growing pool of eligible applicants. See the
EERE Fiscal Year 2009 "Budget-in-Brief" (PDF 438 KB).
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The proposed budget includes $3.2 billion for the President's Advanced
Energy Initiative, a 28% increase, and $225 million for the
President's Solar America Initiative, with $156 million in the EERE
budget and $69 million in the budget for DOE's Office of Science. It
also requests $19.9 million for the administrative expenses of DOE's
new loan guarantee program, while requesting an extension of its
authorization to issue loans through FY 2010 and FY 2011. The FY 2007
appropriations act authorized $38.5 billion in loan guarantees,
including $10 billion for renewable energy, energy efficiency, and
distributed energy generation, but gave DOE only two fiscal years to
issue the loan guarantees. See the DOE press release and page 42a (PDF
page 86) of the explanatory statement that was issued with the
appropriations act (PDF 4.7 MB).